"I've seen a lot of trauma," Dr. Dave Fairbanks.

Concussion has been a hot topic on all levels. From the NFL to youth sports, there has been a rising awareness about concussions.

What are the affects? How can we use data to protect youth? What does a sport’s career look like without documentation of concussion occurrences?

All of these questions, and more, are critical as concussions continue to occur on the field and on the court.

One person who feels passionately about concussion is Austin Collie - former wide receiver for the Colts.

His career ended early after three concussions.

Collie was recently featured on Fox59.com for working with Canary Speech. He says, “Having this information in the hands of high schoolers and their coaches will be huge. They need to be knowledgeable on the subject.”

Even though Collie reached the highest level of play in football, he feels strongly that concussion data and protocols must start early. His NFL career may have ended short, but Collie is wanting to make a difference so young players can be aware of their concussion health.

Did you know that Siri has three accent options, in both male and female, for English? Personally, mine is set on an Australian accent for the time being.

A survey conducted of Echo owning, Amazon Prime customers found that 17% use voice technology to order products off of Amazon.com. What has your experience been using speech recognition technology, like Apple’s Siri or the Amazon Echo?

As companies continue to utilize this technology, there’s an obvious question that arises. What does the world of speech and voice recognition look like for the everyday consumer like you and me?

According to Research and Markets, “The speech recognition market is expected to grow from USD 3.73 billion in 2015 to reach USD 9.97 billion by 2022.” That’s nearly triple in growth for technology that we may or may not see every day; may or may not use every day.

Recently, Facebook was featured in the article, “Inside Facebook’s Speech Recognition Factory,” highlight their significant resources going toward this segment of technology, but they have yet to show the application - like Amazon, Google, and Apple.

Facebook revealed their approach: find a problem that speech recognition could fix. That quickly brought them to ads + videos. After creating a speech recognition technology to that automatically generates subtitles, they say there was a double-digit increase in engagement.

These giant companies that we interact with every day are doing big things and solving problems utilizing speech recognition.

Let’s talk numbers. Don’t fret. These are good numbers and not like the kind you learned in middle school and thought, “I’ll never use this.”

These numbers you can use.

If you had to guess how many concussions occur each year in the United States, what would you say? 500,000? 1 million?

In 2012, 3.8 million concussions were reported. According to headcasecompany.com, this was double the amount reported in 2002.

So, what do we learn from the numbers above?

Concussions are underreported. It happens quickly; in the moment of the game; crowds are cheering; the scoreboard has hundreds of eyes on it. But did you know that nearly 33 percent of all concussion happen...at practice?

Either concussions are becoming more prevalent or parents, coaches, and doctors are becoming more aware of the injury. With so little data on concussion, it’s difficult to tell what is really going on. How many of these reports are repeat concussions? What’s the long-term effects? There’s a clear message that we need more data on concussion diagnosis, treatment, and affects.

In Disney’s The Little Mermaid, the red-haired, spunky protagonist, Ariel, makes a deal with the sea witch, Ursula. In this somewhat, extremely shady deal, Ariel ends up trading her beautiful voice for legs.

What a deal, right?

Well, we all know how that story turns out. But little did young Ariel know that her voice would be such a tool ‘where the people are’.

We use our voices for many things: singing, communicating with our friends and loved ones, road rage, and the list goes on.

Recently, Canary Speech was featured on BBC.com. In the article, they explain what Canary is doing. “Canary Speech is developing a way of analysing conversations using machine learning to test for a number of neurological and cognitive diseases, ranging from Parkinson's to dementia”

From Alzheimer's to concussions, Canary’s voice analysis software aims to catch illnesses early, so proper treatment can begin as soon as possible.

So, the next time you use your voice to ask Siri where to go to dinner or say hello to a friend, remember, that same voice can be the key in diagnosing illness.

Good to know the next time a sea witch offers you a deal. You know, just in case.

All those miles on the Subaru and long hours in the rain has finally paid off. Your child just got a spot on the varsity team and you couldn’t be more excited (you’re trying to hide the intensity because it’s just that real).

As you think back to your child’s medical history you can’t help but consider concussions. Maybe she has had a concussion that required an ER visit; maybe not.

But did you know that don’t you have to be knocked out to have a concussion? In fact, according to WebMD, “Although there may be cuts or bruises on the head or face, there may be no other visible signs of a brain injury.”

Studies have shown that not having a loss of consciousness (LOC) is extremely common in high school athletes.

Concussions can occur with or without LOC. In fact, according to a study that tracked 544 high school athletes found, “Loss of consciousness is relatively uncommon among high school athletes who sustain a sport-related concussion.” 1

Only 4.6% lost consciousness of those concussed during high school sports.

Being aware of the symptoms (or lack of) is critical to the brain health of your athlete. Find out how Canary creates a baseline score to start tracking concussion occurrences in your child.